Girls, Stephen Fry: Gadget Man and Dying For Clear Skin: TV picks

TV preview: Acclaimed US comedy-drama Girls continues on Sky Atlantic,
Stephen Fry gets to grips with more gizmos in Gadget Man and Dying For Clear Skin looks at the devastating effect of teenage acne.

Adam Driver and Lena Dunham are the quirky couple in US comedy hit Girls (Picture: HBO)

Girls, Sky Atlantic, 10pm

What a sexed-up slacker treat this comedy is turning out to be, a Friends for the intern generation. This week, it’s party time for Hannah and her New York City sisters as they head for the best rave in the history of the world, ever. En route, hippychick Jessa (Jemima Kirke) invites an anonymous texter to join them – and everything starts to get a little out of hand, not least for Hannah (Lena Dunham), who claps eyes on her freaky not-quite-boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver). Not only is he having fun but he’s also got his clothes on. Shocking.

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man, C4, 8.30pm

This week, Stephen Fry has got kitchen gadgets to dice for and he sets them whirring for a techy spin on Come Dine With Me. Off he trots to do his groceries – aided by a tricksy robot trolley – before diving into the kitchen to get his cutting-edge devices to whip up a feast for the delight of guest celebs Derren Brown, Carol Vorderman and Jo Brand.

Where Has Your Aid Money Gone? C4, 8pm

Two reports tonight reveal why Africa remains trapped in a cycle of poverty. First, Jonathan Miller travels to Rwanda for Dispatches to investigate what President Kagame’s government has got planned for the £16million aid money pledged by David Cameron. It’s not good. Touching on similar territory, Storyville: Why Poverty? Stealing Africa (BBC4, 10pm) looks at how the mineral riches of Zambia bypass the country’s people to swell coffers in Switzerland.

The Curious Case OF The Clark Brothers, C4, 9pm

More tragic than curious, this is a heart-rending account of the lives of Michael and Matthew Clark. Until their late thirties, the brothers had normal lives but then a rare neurological disorder kicked in and caused them to regress to a childlike state, cared for once more by their parents, Tony and Christine. The Hollywood tale of Benjamin Button is, as Christine says, a fantasy – but this is cruel reality.

Dying For Clear Skin, BBC3, 9pm

Continuing BBC3’s Body Beautiful season, Radio 1 presenter Gemma Cairney reports on the devastating impact acne can have on those it afflicts, such as Will. But the most disturbing element of this investigation is a look at the possible side effects of drugs prescribed to treat the condition. Derek Jones, the director of this documentary, can’t prove a link but believes one such drug led his son Jesse to kill himself.

Film Choice: The Phantom Of The Opera, Film4, 6.20pm

On a cold, wet November evening, you could do worse than curl up with a bit of glossy nonsense like this. Phantom is, of course, one of the most popular stage musicals of all time and this movie adaptation was actually Oscar-nominated (for Best Art Director, Cinematography and Original Song). More broody hunky Batman than ugly beast, Gerard Butler is very much the Hollywood ideal of novelist Gaston Leroux’s disfigured impresario who haunts the Paris Opera House, obsessively grooming the talents of a young chorus girl (Emmy Rossum). You’ll be powerless to resist humming along to those Andrew Lloyd Webber hits.